Kaine supports Obama jobs plan- including tax reform

It has been the biggest barrier to progress in Washington and it could be the biggest challenge of President Barack Obama‘s new jobs bill. In order to pay for $400 billion in new funding, the president will once again call on Congress to raise taxes. Taxes that despite his best efforts, have been something House Republicans have refused to go along with.

Former Governor Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) is running for the U.S. Senate at the same time President Obama will be running for re-election. The two are close friends, and Kaine is still very much a strong supporter. And while he is happy to be running along side the president, he made it clear he doesn’t agree with him on everything.

“I’ve got my own views on some things and he and I some times have some pleasant and some times spirited disagreement on this or that,” said Kaine. “But in most issues we see things the same way.”

One of those issues where they are on the same page is the reforming the tax code to help close the budget gap and pay for the “American Jobs Act” which carries a $400 billion price tag. That reform proposal has been labeled a tax increase by republicans.

“You take away subsidies for oil companies, subsidies for ethanol that aren’t needed and let Bush tax cuts, which were supposed to be temporary because they were going to mess up the deficit, you’ve got to let them expire at the top end.”

Kaine also believes spending cuts are necessary and says he is not afraid to cut. Kaine claims he cut more as Governor “than anyone who has ever sat in that office.” He views re-igniting the economy in a three-fold approach. Cutting wasteful spending, raising revenue through tax reform and investing in the future.

It is a plan similar to the one the president was pushing today. Perhaps an indication of how close their campaigns will be throughout 2012.

[…] will be impossible for Kaine to completely escape the specter of Obama and he knows it. He once told me that when it comes to he and the president, “I’ve got my own views on some things and he and I […]